


against misty moonlight (your heart beats on)

by zanykingmentality



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Late Night Conversations, M/M, Post-Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright, can be read as romantic or not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 12:35:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8751634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zanykingmentality/pseuds/zanykingmentality
Summary: Two boys, hardly men yet, who've seen more in their lifetimes than they ever hoped or wanted, seek the beginnings of peace and mutual understanding.





	

**Author's Note:**

> dedicated to my amazing friend axel, thank you for always supporting my writing and looking out for me when no one else would, you're one of the sweetest people I've ever met !! you deserve all the happiness in the world 
> 
> as usual this is unbeta-d, so forgive any lurking mistakes !!

The bright lanterns of a Hoshidan festival give Leo a headache.

Next to the lake, the earth has eroded into a gentle slope, a perfect fit for a man with extra time and nowhere to go.

(Really, Leo could go wherever he wants, but only as _Prince_ Leo, _King_ Leo. His titles shackle him to a throne he wasn't expecting, a throne he didn't want.)

Stars glitter in the reflection of the lake; fireflies and their soft glow dance around the water’s surface, illuminating every ripple, every disturbance, every little thing that changes the scene.

“Party too overwhelming for you, King Leo?” A voice, rough and sharp, worn with the hardened edges of old suspicion and too many battles, too many deaths. It’s a voice he’s memorized the accent of, heard at the side of winter-haired betrayal.

“Prince Takumi.” He dips his head only enough to be deemed as a sort of careless courtesy, but if it bothers the grey-haired prince, he doesn’t say anything. “To what do I owe this visit?”

“Nothing in particular.” Takumi peers out over the lake and watches, hazel eyes shadowed in the uneasy moonlight of post-war celebrations.

Leo is a perfectionist ― he wouldn’t have gotten this far if he weren’t. Perfectionism has been so ingrained in his being for so long it’s _become_ him; it’s almost like he wouldn’t be Leo without a constant obsession with having everything right, down to the last minute detail.

Meetings like this, among former enemies just now tasting the freedom of acceptance and hateless silence, require precision. He’s not about to let this new, fragile peace be broken, not while _he’s_ king.

“This lake,” Takumi says, his words crashing through the tranquil silence, “has been like this for as long as I can remember.”

“Oh?” Leo doesn’t really care, or at least he convinces himself that he doesn't. “How so?”

“Every morning there's mist. Every night there are fireflies.” A soft smile graces the prince’s lips; it's an expression Leo never thought he'd see on Takumi. “It’s comforting, especially since it hasn't changed, even with the war.”

“But you have,” Leo decides, much to his own annoyance.

“You think?” His voice isn't sarcastic like Leo would have expected. “I think I have. So have you.”

“True enough.” He fixes his gaze over the lake and breathes in the scent of Hoshidan earth and late-night air. “It’s as they say: no man leaves the war the same as when he began.”

“Is that so,” Takumi murmurs; it’s more of a statement than the inquiry it might have been. “It’s an interesting saying.”

“Indeed.” Leo’s eyes follow the fireflies drifting above the lake’s surface. “But there’s truth to it.”

“As usual, you’re right, Prince Leo,” Takumi remarks wryly. “I wonder what gets past your stone-faced exterior.”

“Only you would entertain such thoughts,” Leo shoots back, even though it’s not true. “And I _don’t_ have a stone-faced exterior.”

“You definitely do,” Takumi says immediately. Leo admires his lack of hesitation.

The moon, full and glowing with an ethereal white light, gleams against the dark surface of the water. Leo can’t help but think the tide today will be greater than it ever was before; this is the largest he’s ever seen the moon, the most vibrant. In Nohr it’s always obscured by clouds, breaking through misty cracks to illuminate their pitch black nights.

“Do you think we can ever fully repair the wounds the war has brought on us and our countries?” Takumi’s voice is quiet, soft, and it’s a side of him Leo never let himself think about. “Or is it impossible?”

“We are more capable people now,” Leo says, and it’s true, even though he wakes up soaked in sweat and petrified every night, magic swirling around his feet and blood on his hands, on his fingertips. He’s guilty of a million sins, of causing death and destruction and assistance in a plot of patricide; it’s only because of the blood in his veins, half Nohrian royalty, half commoner, that he’s king now. “We can do much more now than we were able to do before. I believe we can.”

“It sounds so certain coming from you,” Takumi says. “But sometimes I can’t help but wonder.”

Leo doesn’t say that similar doubts flood his mind on a daily basis, that his duty as king places excess stress on his shoulders despite the fact that he hadn’t had room for more stress to begin with. Instead he stays silent and watches the fireflies dance along the trail of moonlight. His eyes find Takumi’s; a content smile graces the prince’s face, making his edges seem softer and happier, and Leo can’t help but stare.

Moonlight reflects off his face; he _glows_. Fireflies dance around their heads, two men who’ve fought each other and themselves, and they’re ready for change.


End file.
